


and nobody saves the day

by luoup (ravenic)



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Divergence, Clint Barton Saves the World, Gen, the Final Battle, the Infinity Gauntlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:28:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23220985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenic/pseuds/luoup
Summary: Clint has the Infinity Gauntlet.  Clint can’t find the rest of his team.  Clint has a bad idea.A slightly altered version of Endgame where Hawkeye is the one who Snaps.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	and nobody saves the day

**Author's Note:**

> okay, i’ll be the first to admit that i love hawkguy way too much. it’s part of the reason it took me a year to watch infinity war – hawkeye wasn’t in it so what was the point? you can guess how happy i was for him to be a major player in endgame (!!! except the vormir scene, that broke my heart [and i'm fixing it asap](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23452795)). when he was just tearing around with the gauntlet under one arm, i was simultaneously cracking up and also actually almost convinced that what happens in this fic would be what happened. when it wasn’t (phooey), i decided to just go ahead and write it. 
> 
> if you aren’t familiar with the comics, there are a few lines in there that won’t make a ton of sense since they refer to comic!hawkeye’s origins which were (unfortunately) never included in the movies. it’s not a big deal and you’ll probably be able to read along just fine anyway.

Clint had never hated an inanimate object as much as he did the Infinity Gauntlet. Sure, Loki’s staff had been pretty bad, but he’d hated its wielder more, and in the end the damn thing had turned out to be just one-fifth of what made the Gauntlet so terrible in its own right. 

Loki had come to Earth for the Tesseract. He’d arrived with his spear, bringing two Infinity Stones in closer proximity than any of them had been in a long time. Clint had been controlled by the Mind Stone, and Coulson had been killed by the spear bearing it. Natasha had died to retrieve the Soul Stone. The Gauntlet itself had caused the literal disintegration of Clint’s entire family, and of so many others. This tool and its components had caused unbelievable suffering and tragedy, to the universe, to Earth, and also honestly just to Clint himself. 

But nobody had ever really cared what Clint Barton thought. So here he was, running wildly across the most intense battlefield Earth had ever seen (which, at this point, was saying something), clutching the Gauntlet and praying to whatever gods were left that Thanos’s beast-soldiers didn’t catch him. Because if they did, this was all over. Everything would have been for nothing. He thought of red hair, streaming into white like foxtail, and resolved once again – he wouldn’t let it happen. 

Bruce’s Snap had worked. The fight wasn’t over yet, but everyone was back and that was more than enough motivation to fight, to see this through to the end. 

_(Everyone except her. Sacrifices had been made, and all they could do now was ensure that they hadn’t been in vain.)_

Of course, this would all be for naught if Clint got caught. “Why the hell is the _literal only unaltered human on this team_ the one carrying the damn Gauntlet?!” he snarled, leaping over a gap in the rubble. The creatures leapt it too, with much more ease than Hawkeye’s exhausted human legs had, and continued the pursuit. 

_“We’re working on it,”_ came Cap’s voice over the comms. _“War Machine, Rocket, someone – hurry up and find him!”_

 _“I’m trying!”_ Spider-Man cried. _“Your uniform just kinda blends in, you know? It’s really hard to find you.”_

“No _shit,”_ Hawkeye hissed, “I’m a _spy.”_ At least, he used to be, back before the world ended. It wasn’t doing him any favors now, though. The bad guys had spotted him long ago, and now his own allies couldn’t track him down. He could really do with one of Captain America’s spangly outfits right about now, or maybe an Iron Man suit. 

Nah. If he was gonna have a ridiculous super-extra-looking outfit, it was gonna be purple. Definitely. Lots of purple. And way sillier than his angsty Ronin costume, as cool as that had been. 

_Redesign your wardrobe later,_ he reminded himself, dodging another of Thanos’s monstrous aliens. It reoriented and attacked again. Hawkeye dodged again and ran faster. 

This was useless. Everyone was locked in their own fights; help wasn’t coming. He didn’t have his usual backup (he never would, now). 

But there was an option. It was a bad one, sure, but at this point things couldn’t get much worse. Clint Barton had never once in his life been accused of being careful or thinking things through, and despite his track record of having _the literal worst luck_ he didn’t really see any other choices at this point. So he just did it. 

Hawkeye took a deep breath, let it out, and placed his right hand into the Infinity Gauntlet. 

It was like being in the center of an aurora. He’d flown SHIELD quinjets through the auroras before, both borealis and australis, but this was a thousand times more powerful. Sure, the pain was near-unbearable, but he was used to that kind of thing too. 

The Gauntlet resettled itself to fit his hand, larger and more powerful than most regular humans but far smaller than that of a Hulk. Light and energy flowed from it, strong enough to nearly bowl him over. Clint found himself kneeling in the rubble, all of Thanos’s soldiers blown back from the radiant waves of energy. 

_I guess they’ll be able to find me now,_ he thought wryly through the ringing blur that was his brain. 

Sure enough, there was the little tree guy, and Bucky with a machine gun, and the woman called Valkyrie flying high above on what was absolutely definitely a real actual Pegasus – but what was a little more concerning was that Thanos had also noticed what was going on. 

The titan bellowed with rage. _“No!_ The Gauntlet is mine!” He knocked aside the battered Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man, and began to charge. “Give it to me! The universe belongs to me, and me alone!” He loomed, casting a shadow larger than his physical mass, fury distorting his features as he ran towards the only thing in the universe that mattered to him. “I am inevitable!”

Clint looked up at him. He’d seen a lot of weird shit since getting the call from Arizona about a hammer that couldn’t be moved, but this might be the greatest – and last – of them all. 

The Infinity Gauntlet burned on his arm. 

He hadn’t even been supposed to be a part of the Avengers Initiative. Just wrong place, wrong time, weird fucker with a magic glowstick, and he’d even dragged Nat along with him. Clint wasn’t magical, wasn’t enhanced, wasn’t a billionaire super-genius, wasn’t any smarter or more powerful than any other SHIELD agent. He was just a guy with a bow and good eyesight. 

And yet. 

And yet, here he stood, bearing for once not a bow but the most powerful tool in the universe in his hands, _on_ his hand. Energies still poured off it in solar-flare waves, but he was getting used to it, or maybe he’d just gone numb enough to not feel anything at all. Either way, here he stood. That was the important part. 

_“I am inevitable!”_ The Mad Titan roared, reaching for the Gauntlet. 

Clint just looked at him. A kid from Iowa, his entire life a series of proofs of Murphy’s Law, no special powers, no mutations or enhancements or abilities. Not that smart. Ex-carnie. Ex-military. Ex-SHIELD, now that that shitshow had gone down in flames. Really just a trainwreck of a human being, for the most part. Just a particularly clear eye and some good upper-body strength. A terrible sense of humor and more determination than was really healthy. 

He imagined for a moment that he felt a hand on his arm, or a back pressed to his. He imagined that he could hear the laughter of his children. But there was nobody here except an enraged Titan, charging him like a bulling elephant had once, back in his circus days when he’d been The Amazing Hawkeye and people thought he was the coolest thing they’d ever seen. 

He’d never believed in fate, in inevitability. He couldn’t; it would have been too cruel. Things just… happened, and you dealt with the fallout as best you could. No one was invincible, nothing was inevitable. The world kept on going, in the end. 

Hawkeye – Ronin – Clint Barton looked the Mad Titan in the eye and smiled, just a little. “I’m nobody,” he shrugged. 

The least notable Avenger raised his right hand, Infinity Gauntlet shining in its own light. Then he snapped his fingers. 

**Author's Note:**

> and then he didn’t die, because reasons. uh… he’s literally completely entirely unmodified, the most humanest human, so the power of the infinity gauntlet just kinda… rolled over/through/around him? and didn’t fckin kill him. this is the flip side of all the bad luck clint has had his entire life, or something. so he’s. fine. everything’s fine. and he, uh, gets natasha and vision back, and it’s all… okay? 
> 
> i don’t know don’t question me. i just wanted to write hawkguy saving the day, thanksforreadingbye.


End file.
